Vegan Pizza Recipe (With Easy Homemade Mozzarella)

In transitioning my household to quasi-vegan, most changes went great. But moving to a plant-based diet and keeping up our beloved Friday night pizza habit didn’t. Our favorite local takeout joint does not offer vegan cheese, and their sauce has Parmesan in it. 

Meanwhile, the vegan mozzarella from the store felt overpriced and underwhelming. It seemed there had to be a better way. Curious, I searched “DIY vegan mozzarella” on my phone and hit the Holy Grail. This quick homemade vegan mozzarella is easy, cheap, free from weirdo ingredients, and unbelievably superior to anything from the store. Most importantly, it’s hot and gooey, delivering proper pizza night satisfaction in this classic cheesy vegan pizza recipe. 

Dough and Sauce: Vegan by Default

Making pizza vegan from the ground up starts off easy. Most pizza doughs and pizza sauces (including ones from the store) fall in that glorious “vegan by default” category. To be safe, check the label to verify it’s vegan.

I can’t get good refrigerated pizza dough where I live, so I make my own with this recipe. I throw it together the morning of our designated pizza night, divide it into balls, and let it rise in the fridge while I’m at work so it’s ready and waiting when I come home.   

DIY Vegan Pizza Cheese: A Game Changer

Now, on to the pay dirt: the cheese. Longtime vegans know that mozzarella-style shreds have made it a long way since their iffy inception, but they are still often reluctant to melt. And their cost has gone up in a manner disproportionate to their quality.

I’ve made fancypants nut-based cheeses at home and even fermented them. They’re good, but they’re not cheesy. I wanted homemade vegan cheese that hit basal pizza pleasure zones of melty and goopy. 

The food blog School Nite Vegan offered a brilliant solution: use tapioca flour to make what’s essentially a pre-melted blob. Tapioca flour, once it’s boiled with liquid, gets a stringy texture that’s convincingly like melted cheese. Nutritional yeast provides the flavor, and neutral oil gives the richness. Throw it all together in a saucepan and the result belies its underwhelming ingredients. You can make it while the oven preheats.

Melty vegan pizza cheese requires no grating; you just blorb it right on the pizza, then bake. Leftovers, if you have any, keep in the fridge for a few days, allowing you a lunchtime quesadilla or two. 

Using Storebought Cheese Is Okay!

Look, you don’t have to be a superstar and make your own vegan pizza cheese. You’re already rocking it by making homemade pizza. The meltiest shreds are Daiya Mozzarella Style Shreds. My boyfriend has been a vegan since forever and this is his go-to.

For more of a Margherita-style pizza, shredded or finely cubed Miyoko’s Cashew Milk Mozzarella will hit those notes. 

Toppings for Vegan Pizza

When it comes to any type of pizza, I’m in the camp of keeping it light. Piling on the toppings leads to a soggy crust. Consider the following toppings:

• Vegan pepperoni slices
• Thinly sliced mushrooms, raw (they’ll cook on the pizza, but be sparing, as they give off a ton of moisture)
• Browned mushrooms (these you can add more of, since they’re already cooked)
• Handfuls of baby arugula or spinach (it’ll wilt down in the oven)
• Whole or halved pitted olives
• Drained, jarred piquillo peppers or Calabrian chiles, cut into ribbons
• A few basil leaves and a drizzle of good olive oil once the pizza’s straight out of the oven
• Crumbled, browned vegan sausage grounds, or slices of ready-to-eat vegan sausage links

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